Is Mark Carney all about the "Abundance" agenda?

A new book by the American journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson calls for small-l liberals to get busy building things.

First approved in 2008, the only segment currently under construction of a high-speed rail project meant to connect San Francisco with L.A., is a portion spanning 171 miles (275 km), connecting the small towns of Merced and Bakersfield.

In March, two of my favourite American journalists, the New York Times’ Ezra Klein and the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson, published a book called Abundance. The book discusses why large-scale initiatives in areas like affordable housing and public infrastructure often face bureaucratic hurdles and resistance despite being clearly in the public interest.

The book came to mind as I heard Prime Minister Carney utter the words ‘build big, build bold’ during his first news conference since the election on Friday. The statement was made as Carney was outlining the priorities of his new Liberal government.

Like Carney, Klein and Thompson are small-l liberals and the book is first and foremost a plea to those on left side of the political spectrum to re-think everything from restrictive zoning laws to overly onerous environmental assessments. Klein and Thompson want a “liberalism that builds,” not just in such obvious things as affordable housing and green energy but in artificial intelligence and in drug development, too, areas where they see similar patterns of stagnation. Their goals are broad, perhaps too broad, but do echo many of the themes in the Liberal platform.

More on the Abundance agenda and the similarities to the Liberal platform just after the paywall.